parasitic prevalence in water sources from río chagres communities 2010-2019

Abstract

Indigenous and rural communities live on the banks of the Chagres River, lacking safe water for their consumption, for which they have suffered for years from gastrointestinal diseases that affect their development. To demonstrate the socioeconomic inequality existing in the Capital of Panama, we decided to establish the purpose of this work to know the prevalence of parasites in the waters of the Chagres River used for human consumption. Therefore, we collected 10 L of the water that is consumed by the indigenous communities, in 10 spots for the indigenous communities around AChPP & AChT and in 15 spots for the rural communities in AChVL. The results found reveal that 67% of river waters and 24% of aqueduct waters have parasites (p = 0.11886). In addition, we observe that the two indigenous communities have a 40% parasite prevalence compared to 21% of the rural community (p = 1.00). The study confirms the need to improve water quality in these three communities of the Chagres River.